You're right and we will

The thing with Gaskell is he gets so much stick for dying with the ball. But he's doing that because Wellens isn't in the right place because he's too slow and too predictable. If Gaskell passes it, it will be an easy read from the defense because Wello's not there so they can line up easily man on man and if he doesn't they just have to stop him.

If we had a proper fullback last night we would have won comfortably IMO. The fullback is such a vital player in today's game as he can chime into the line at any point in it, making it harder for the defense to number up. Players like Webb, Tomkins, Hodgson and Grix do it superbly. Wellens occasionally limps into the centre position and gets smashed as he's stumbling and falling over.

Even tho he took wrong options last night he was still our most dangerous player with ball in hand.

Someone needs to teach him how to kick during the winter.His gifting of the final try for Leeds summed his kicking game up perfectly.

I do believe that Gaskell will be a great player, him and Lomax will form a formidable partnership, I think Saints have a cracking future to look forward to, those 2 along with Makinson, Wheeler, Foster and Dixon are the future of Saints.

if the likes of Foster and Dixon are the future,things will be bleak

Prob the two worst from a very good bunch.

Yes, that's why he's scored tries recently, even with an ongoing achilles injury. I think you're fab Saddened! but sometimes you do my head in with your dumb statements.

Wello has been playing very over the last month.

Just a couple of questions for you Saints fans, obviously I only see them on telly, first of all is Foster that bad, and is Makinson going to be a full back.

No and I don't know yet.

Foster needs to stop thinking he's the Mutt's Nuts and start working again towards being the player he thinks he is already. Lomax is the future at #1 for me and Makinson looks more and more settled at #2 with every game.

I hate to say it but im with Saddened in that i think sometimes Gaskell couldnt shift it wide because Wello was just a little behind play. With a faster player chiming into the line it would have caused Leeds problems. This was shown clearly when Gaskell went right and set up the Shenton try.
The Leeds players were wary of the pace of Shenton so didnt double team Gaskell, as a result he was able to go through the gap and offload to Shenton who was in space.

As for people slagging off Gaskells kicking. His booming kicks kept us in the game first half when our pack was getting smashed off the park. People forget that even though the balls were going to the fullback or wing the sheer distance he gets on his kicks, was meaning the Leeds players were having to stand deeper than would be the case with say Sean Long kicking.

Well, as we now know, he was playing with an achilles injury so maybe that would explain why he was playing slow. After all, he's been on hand to score tries throughout the playoffs and so there must have been some good reason for him to have been out of synch in the GF.


I agree. I heard some criticism of his kicks around me in the West Stand but I explained to people I was chatting to that while he may not be finding the grass, he was getting distance which gave us opportunity to get down the field and keep them there.

When all is said and done, had we not knocked on under the sticks when going over in the first half, we would have gone into the break in the same situation as we were in when we played Leeds at Widnes: a tie (but just two points more than at Widnes, when we were 6 all before the break). We took Leeds apart in the second half at Widnes and all the signs were there that we were going to do the same in the second half of the GF. Then injuries and Scott Moore struck and we were undone. Very sad.

Players don't suddenly become poor when the effects of age begin to set in. Typically older players are quite capable of playing as well as they did in their early twenties - the problem is they [ifind it impossible to do so consistently[/i. Wellens reached the point of no return three years ago. At that time (perhaps even earlier) we should have promoted a couple of potential fullback candidates from the academy and gradually introduced them into the team. Unfortunately the club (whether it be the fault of the coach or the chairman) has put in place no coherent replacement strategy for Wello and this failure to adapt has bitten us on the ass big time - repeatedly.